Patient communication skills raining for improved communication competence in the primary care medical consultation

Abstract

Although considerable attention has been given to doctor‐patient communication over the last 20 years, relatively little research has emphasized the role of patients’ communication skills. This research extended the modest work in patient communication skills training by (a) employing a more sophisticated definition of question‐asking than has been used in previous studies, and (b) expanding training to include information‐verifying skills. The results indicate that the training procedure enhanced patients’: information seeking in the form of direct and indirect questions, comprehension‐checking utterances, the amount and effectiveness of obtained information, and recall of information. These results are discussed in terms of previous and future research into patient training in communication skills, and implications for practice.